An angel is a supernatural being that acts as an intermediary between God and his creation, man. According to the creeds of monotheistic religions, angels were created by God himself to fulfill the role of "messengers". God is invisible and imperceptible to man, therefore, to convey his will, he created angels, for they encompass both the otherworldly transcendence of God and the created essence of man.
Mentions of angels can be found in the sacred texts of Jews, Christians, Muslims and Zoroastrians. The angels are considered most fully and thoroughly in the Christian tradition: information about them is in the Gospel, Revelation and the Epistle of the Apostle Paul. The angel Gabriel is one of the most frequently mentioned in the Gospel, he is, in fact, the personification of the "Gospel".
The origin of angels and their nature
The exact time of God's creation of angelic forces is not indicated in Revelation. One can only assume that they were revealed earlier than the entire material world and earlier than man. After all, some angels, in particular Lucifer, fell away from Godprecisely because of jealousy for his new creation. They were indignant: how can God love creatures of clay and mud more than perfect, fiery angels.
Angels are incorporeal, and therefore free from human needs, they do not need food, air, or reproductive function, and life in them is supported by divine grace. Also, they are not located in a specific space and time and can change their location with lightning speed.
Angelic nature is ideal, perfect, for they are created in the image of God, however, by the will of God, they, like people, are endowed with reason and free will, which allowed, at one time, some angels to lean towards the path of evil.
Thus, the angels were part of the global plan of God. They are an ideal, spiritual essence, the world of things created then is a sensual principle, and the totality of these spiritual and sensual principles is a person.
Heavenly angelic hierarchy
The most extensive celestial hierarchy was proposed by Pseudo Dionysius the Areopagite, in which he indicates 9 angelic ranks. Despite the fact that the angelic hierarchy is a unity, there are three angelic degrees in it: their gradation is associated with different levels of proximity to the Lord's grace.
The lower degrees receive divine grace and enlightenment through the higher ones. The highest, and thus closest to God, are the Seraphim, Cherubim, and Thrones. It is they who accept God in its pure form and are able to contemplate it without intermediaries.
Middle Degree - Dominions, Powersand Power. They perform a kind of administrative function. The Dominations govern all other angelic ranks, the Forces help people and work miracles, and the Authorities tame the devilish forces.
The lowest angelic degree - Beginnings, Archangels and Angels. The beginnings mainly perform managerial functions, the Archangels are evangelists, bringing the truths of Revelation to people (the angel Gabriel belongs to the Archangel rank), Angels are mentors of the human race, moving people to virtuous deeds.
The Areopagite himself subsequently stated that such a classification is conditional and cannot fully reflect the whole picture, for this is known only to God. The exact number of angels is also a rhetorical question, just remember Occam's maxim "how many angels dance at the end of one needle."
Angel Gabriel: who is this and what is his angelic mission?
In the books of the biblical canon only 2 Archangelic names are mentioned: Michael and Gabriel. In addition to them, non-canonical literature indicates 5 more Archangels close to the divine throne.
All Archangels perform specific functions:
- praise God;
- war against the forces of evil and their leader Lucifer (such a mission is led by Michael);
- protective function;
- intermediary function.
Angel Gabriel performs the main, fundamental function - he is the main messenger of God, which is indicated by the meaning of his name: "God is my strength." In the Christian tradition, he, along with Raphael and Michael, is in the guise of saints.
ExactlyGabriel was sent by God to the prophet Daniel in order to interpret his dream, to give him information about the end of the Jewish captivity. He was also sent to Zechariah with the news that Elizabeth, his wife, would bear him a son, who would be called John the Baptist. When Zechariah, being in his advanced years, did not believe the angel, Gabriel punished him, saying that he would not utter a word from Zechariah until the angel's message came true.
The most famous biblical story associated with Gabriel is the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary, that she is blessed among women and carries the child of the Lord in her womb. This plot is a favorite theme of European painting and iconography. In most of the compositions, we can see an angel with a lily or a scepter in her left hand and with her right hand raised, symbolizing a gesture of blessing, Mary is depicted humble, listening to the good news.
The central figure of such compositions is Angel Gabriel. Photos of such compositions (not all of the paintings and original icons are widely available) testify to the emphasis on the importance of the figure of an angel, bright, inspired and majestic. But this situation is typical only for early European art: after the 14th century, the emphasis shifted to the image of the Virgin Mary, while Gabriel, in turn, began to be portrayed as humble, sometimes even on his knees.
Prayers to angels
Prayers expressing a request to any Archangel are differentiated depending onfunctional Arkhangelsk features, for example:
- Archangel Michael is asked to overcome his base passions.
- Prayer to the angel Gabriel is directly related to his prophetic functions, they turn to him in order to find out their hour of death. Moreover, it is worth remembering that none of the angels owns global information, for example, the date of the second Coming of Christ, etc., only God knows this.
- Archangel Raphael can fulfill requests for healing moral and physical.
- The Holy Archangel Uriel is an enlightener, he can tell the one who asks for a solution to an urgent problem.
In conclusion, it should be noted that church canons do not forbid praying to angels and honoring them, however, angels are just a likeness of God, a product of his creativity, therefore, they cannot be an object of worship, equal to Him. The 35th Canon of the Council of Laodicea decreed that the worship of angels was heresy. There is a separate holiday dedicated to the 7 Archangels, servants of the Holy Trinity, celebrated on November 8th. The date is extremely symbolic: November is the 9th month, as an analogy for the 9 ranks of the angels. Honoring the Archangel Gabriel separately falls on April 8, that is, on the second day after the celebration of the Annunciation.
